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Teacher Review for Dinosaur Train Classic in the Jurassic, Jr.!

Sluggish user interface and choppy animation detract from this simple, early math skills game.

August D.
 Classroom teacher
Ridgewood Elementary School
Eureka, United States
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My Subjects English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Arts
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My Rating
Learning Scores
Engagement
Pedagogy
Support
My Students Liked It No
I Would Recommend It No
Setup Time Less than 5 minutes
Great for Practice
Small group
Teacher-led lessons
Whole class
How I Use It
I will not use this product in my teaching. After test driving all aspects of the app at home with my preschool aged son, it became quickly apparent more work needs to be done to make Classic in the Jurassic, Jr. classroom ready. For those looking for some way to put this app to use at school, I suppose it could be used to introduce concepts whole group. Use of this PBS Kids produced app for independent practice to reinforce skills previously taught is possible, but not recommended due to poor design.
My Take
Classic in the Jurassic, Jr. may offer early math skills appropriate for young learners, such as sorting and measurement, but it’s clunky nature makes it frustrating and uninspiring to use. The setting and characters offer some appeal to children familiar with PBS Kids’ series, Dinosaur Train, but it’s likely to lose even the biggest fan’s interest quickly due to poor execution. Moving objects around the screen often requires multiple attempts, and even then can be inaccurate. Also, although the narrating dinosaur should be helpful at guiding non-readers through the games, the voice overs are slow to respond to player actions. I appreciate the attempt to introduce early math skills to preschool/early kindergarten students in a scaffolded way, but much like the game’s dinosaur characters, this app is destined for extinction.